Posted on July 13, 2012 by Jenny Cromack

Sometimes you end up working way too long or have a poor night’s sleep, this inevitably effects training the following morning. This can be detrimental to a workout as cortisol levels will be further elevated and testosterone levels lowered, this significantly reduces performance during the session.

Now for some people this cycle of training tired has become a regular occurrence, unavoidably their progress is slow or nonexistent. A recent study published in The Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition examined different strategies to improve exercise performance following sleep deprivation. Groups included traditional stimulants such as caffeine, and combinations of caffeine with creatine, and various groups of creatine doses.

Interestingly the 100mg/kg group of creatine supplementation improved performance more dramatically than any other group including those who ingested high doses of caffeine. The researchers suggest this was due to the fact that sleep deprivation results in reduced stores of Phosphocreatine effecting central nervous system activation, which inevitably limits maximal work capacity. The creatine therefore replenished these stores facilitating the greatest improvement in exercise performance.

Furthermore, the creatine groups had significantly lower cortisol levels compared to the caffeine groups, which would likely result in a feeling of less anxiety, better mood and greater alertness.

Creatine is far superior to aid exercise performance when tired compared to caffeine, so cut out the coffee and wash down some creatine when tired.  It is worth noting this should not be applied long term, you cannot substitute good rest and correct nutrition.

Chris Baird